London: NATO has admitted that the killing of eight schoolboys in a night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence.
“Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack. We don’t now believe that we busted a major ring,” The Times quoted NATO sources, as saying.
Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.
Officials had claimed that the victims were involved in making and smuggling improvised explosive devices.
But NATO sources now admit that victims were all aged 12 to 18, and were not involved in insurgent activity.
Two men whose children and other relatives were killed provided pictures of their dead sons, a sketched map of the compound and copies of the compensation claim forms signed by local officials detailing their sons’ names, relatives and positions at school.
Farooq Abdul Ajan, who lost two sons, two brothers, three nephews and a cousin in the raid, said that the soldiers had had no idea whom they were killing.
Afghan investigators, local officials and MPs from the province all maintain that the boys were innocent.
Mohammed Afzal, Narang’s district police chief, insisted that the US special forces were involved in the raid.
The Independent Human Rights Commission said that more than 63 civilians had died in the past two weeks.
ANI
